


Another World

by fleurjaune



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, For Want of a Nail, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Infidelity, Multiple Points of View, Non-Chronological, but like that is the fic, honestly gabriel is lucky nathalie likes him because...yikes, in so much as that's a given for this pairing tbh, like a character thinks about it for a second, well partly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:21:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25225273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleurjaune/pseuds/fleurjaune
Summary: Nathalie's been through a lot because of the Miraculous but waking up with memories of a whole other world, one where she's married to Gabriel is a whole new level of upsetting.
Relationships: Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth/Nathalie Sancoeur
Comments: 30
Kudos: 48





	Another World

Nathalie’s woken up by the light shining through her window. She keeps her eyes shut to ignore it seeing as the alarm hasn’t even gone yet, and rolls over to block it out, but instead of finding the warmth of her husband to snuggle into the other side of her bed is cold. She wonders if she should go in search of him but most likely one of the children has come looking for him, so if he prevented them rousing her she might as well take advantage of his thoughtfulness.

Then her alarm goes, and it’s the _wrong sound._ She forces herself to open her eyes and pushes herself up and she’s in her old apartment.

The problem is she hasn’t lived there for over half a decade. 

Except, she suddenly remembers, she has. This is where she’s lived since she’s been able to rent a place to herself in Paris.

Except she hasn’t because she moved in with Gabriel when he proposed.

She can’t reconcile the two memories. It doesn’t make sense. Everything she remembers contradicts something else.

Could she have dreamed an entire another life?

She doesn’t have the imagination for that.

Is this the dream instead?

She doesn’t have the imagination for that either.

Some sick sense of duty gets her up and out of bed even when all she wants to do is curl back in it and cover herself over with the blanket and try to go back to sleep and pretend none of this is happening.

It’s harder to pretend this isn’t real as she starts getting herself ready for the day. She can feel the water on her skin in the shower, her clothes are just where they’re meant to be, she can taste the coffee.

This isn’t the dream.

She still finds herself idly eyeing the knife rack in the kitchen wondering whether she’d bleed if she stabbed herself. They say pain is supposed to be the real confirmation you’re not dreaming.

Only if this is reality, then that doesn’t mean that other life was just a dream after all, because _here_ in _this_ life there’s magic.

Nathalie’s never hated magic and the Miraculous as much as she does in this moment.

* * *

For all he must have believed them to let them access the Miracle Box Master Fu doesn’t look impressed with them.

His disapproval doesn’t help Marinette’s nerves at all. The Master Fu she knows trusted her enough to make her the Guardian. This Master Fu is only letting them do this because Bunnyx convinced him. His lack of confidence in her makes it’s harder to have confidence in herself. Especially when all of this is must be her failure.

“And you’re sure this will work?” She asks Bunnyx, or whatever exactly she’s calling herself now that she’s wearing the snake as well as the rabbit. She can feel the power she’s about to invoke, and she’s scared, and all of this seems so wrong.

“It’s the only chance we’ve got.” The elder superhero confirms, taking Marinette’s hands, “Now be careful. We need to meditate together or it won’t work. Reversing the Wish that was made isn’t enough. We need to return everything to how it was the day before Hawkmoth’s attack, that’s where I come in. And M.Agreste _needs_ to remember. We’re going to prevent the circumstances that caused this from ever happening.”

“Why does he need to remember? Couldn’t it be anyone?”

Bunnyx doesn’t meet her eyes. “No. It has to be him.”

“That seems cruel. He seems happy here.” For all he'd chased them out of his house like normal there was a light in his eyes when he looked at his daughter and his wife that she’d never seen before. “Can’t we fix things _without_ doing that to him?”

The other girl sighs. “I wish this had happened when you were older. Sometimes we have to be cruel.”

“Right.” Marinette swallows, she can’t quite convince herself they’re doing the right thing. “Isn’t there a cost to doing this?”

Master Fu scoffs at them. “You’re wiping out entire lives. There’s your cost.”

That doesn’t make Marinette feel any better. She wants Adrien back, she really does, but she can’t see the boy she knows wanting to come back at the cost of his half-siblings. Not when she knows he wishes he had ones of his own.

And she doesn’t want to wish on Adrien the life she’s being asked to give him, where his father will be haunted by another life he’s lost, as if things aren’t bad enough in that family already.

But she’s not doing this for Adrien, even if she feels guilt for the sweet relief she feels that she’ll see him again. She’s doing this because Bunnyx says that if she doesn’t, if there’s no Hawkmoth while she’s a teenager, then their future is much darker.

Perhaps she can do something for Adrien and his father though. “What about his wife? His wife here I mean, not the one from before. Shouldn’t she remember too?”

Bunnyx raises an eyebrow, “That’s not a bad idea actually. The last thing we need is her, well, you don’t need to know that.”

* * *

Nathalie breathes in. She’s not fine, she doesn’t think she can be fine but she has a plan. She’s going to go in and hand in her notice and explain she’s taking holiday until her notice period is up.

It’s unprofessional and probably against company rules but he’ll accept it. He has to. She’ll make him accept it-after everything she’s done for him he won’t stop her. She has to do this. She can’t keep going in each day and working with him now. Not when she remembers a whole life with him that didn’t happen.

If he needs her as Mayura she’ll find some way to make it work but she can’t sit at that desk and pretend she doesn’t know what it’s like to be married to him. That she doesn’t know things about him she has no right to know.

When she opens the atelier door though he doesn’t give her time to talk.

“I need to show you something.” He says, grabbing her arm and pulling her over to his screen.

She gives in. She can indulge him one last time before she leaves.

She freezes when she sees what’s on the screen. 

It’s _them._ It’s _their_ children. _Her_ children.

There’s no reaction you’re supposed to have to that. Their lives are so far outside normal that there’s no proscribed story for how it’s supposed to go when magic creates another timeline where you’re married to the man you’re in love with despite yourself with two beautiful beloved children, and then a superhero turns up and takes it all away, then once you’ve realised that it’s all gone for good, and you’ll never see them again, your not-any-more-or-ever-husband presents you with a drawing of your lost children.

She’s struck dumb.

That doesn’t capture any of her emotions in the least. Not the joy that it wasn’t a dream, not the despair that it wasn’t a dream, not the incandescent delight that he remembers them too, not the utter humiliation that he remembers that life too, not the horrific grief she’s suddenly able to feel at this confirmation that they were real, that they existed, that she’s not the only one that remembers them, and that now they’re _gone._

But there’s no words to describe that so none come to her, and she’s left without words.

He’s not.

“You do remember them don’t you?”

She doesn’t need to say anything. She knows it must be clear she does.

“Did I get them right?”

She still can’t force any words out.

“I thought I had finally, I was up all night trying to do it, I should have been able to do it, I drew them all the time, the same way I did with Adrien, yet I still couldn’t be happy I had them right.”

His mania breaks through her shock but she still can’t make herself talk about them. “All night? I didn’t remember until this morning.”

“I was woken up by the Miraculous. That should have been my first clue, but I still looked for you. I looked for the children, and then I finally realised what had happened.” He sighs, “I couldn’t leave it just up to my memory, I had to draw them, but I don’t know that I’ve succeeded.”

“You did.” She manages, “I can’t believe I didn’t even _think_ of trying to do anything like this myself.”

But then _why_ would she, when she wouldn’t be able to. She's never been creative. He's the artist of the two of them.

“I thought I’d never see them again,” she says her voice cracking. It's as if when she managed to force the words out through her throat she broke the dam she'd put up to hold back her grief.

She wishes he'd done this in paper not on his screen. She wants to touch their faces but she’s afraid of changing something if she does.

Her tears start to blur her view of them and she pulls her glasses off to rub at her eyes. Maybe she can rub out the image of what she’s lost too.

He stops her, “Don’t hurt yourself.”

“I’m not.” She lies.

He carefully wipes the tears on her checks away.

“I know you too well now to believe that.” He says pressing a kiss to where his thumb just brushed her skin. 

She should stop him. This is a different world entirely. She has no right to him here. She should pull away and stop this.

She doesn’t. She lets him continue to rediscover her face with his lips. When he reaches her jawline she lets her head fall back, and lays open her throat for his attention. How can she deny herself this comfort when she’s already had it before?

* * *

Marinette frowns. “So, someone went back in time, and changed things, and somehow the ripple effects meant Adrien was never born?”

“It wasn’t a time traveller.” Says Bunnyx. “This was your Miraculous. Yours and Chat Noir’s.”

“ _Hawkmoth_ did this?” That had but her own assumption earlier but, “I don’t understand. What does he get out of any of this?”

This world is quiet. Peaceful. There’s no Hawkmoth and no superheroes either. It’s the furthest possible thing she can imagine from the world that she would have guessed Hawkmoth would create.

“It wasn’t Hawkmoth.”

“What? Who did this then?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“You don’t know?” Marinette hazarded, “Or this this another thing I’m not supposed to know to save the timeline?”

“I can’t tell you that either.”

* * *

Eventually he pulls away, but not without pressing a final kiss to her forehead. “We’ll get them back. I promise you that.”

“How can we?” Neither the Butterfly or the Peacock have that sort of power, and even if they did the heroes would probably just erase them again. “We can’t go back to that world.” Even if they could Gabriel wouldn’t. Not when Adrien doesn’t exist there.

“We don’t have to. I'm here, you’re here.” His hand moves to hover over her lower abdomen. “We have everything we need to recreate them.”

“No.” This is madness. “We can’t, the circumstances are completely different.”

“I know, but we’re going to fix that. I want to make you Mme. Agreste again, I drew the ring too, we can go to the jewellers today and order it.”

“You’re still married to Emilie here.” She reminds him as if that will exonerate her for her earlier actions. She doesn’t know if she could bear the guilt of taking him from Emilie. It was different in that other world. Emilie had never had him there. She’d been Gabriel’s one who got away, and last thing Nathalie had heard she was alive and well, married to a prominent politician.

“Am I really? Can I be called a husband, when if we don’t get Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculous then I'm a widower?” He sighs, and for the first time this morning the mania in his eyes dims, “I’ve asked the lawyers about divorce.”

It's reassuring to see the man she knows under there. If he’s talking about divorce then he might be ready to give up his marriage to Emilie but he isn't ready to give up his promise to bring her back. You don’t divorce someone who’s dead. That’s the Gabriel she knows _here_ at least.

“What did you say to them? You can’t have explained all of this.”

“No, I just told them I wanted to remarry. That’s all the information they need.”

Momentarily she’s amused by the complete confusion this must have caused his lawyers, but “I wished you’d ask me first.”

“If you want a proper proposal I can give you one, though I don’t seem to be very good at them in any timeline.” From his chagrined expression he’s remembering the less than perfect circumstances he proposed in last time.

“I didn’t mean a proposal, I mean all of this. You haven’t thought this through.” She can’t blame him, she wants them back too, and if she could _know_ for certain they'd have their children again she'd enter into this marriage of convenience he's proposing in a heartbeat. “What happens if we don’t conceive this time? Or if we do but I miscarry? I'm older now than I was when I had either of them then. Or if we do have a baby but it’s a totally different child because there’s no reason we’d have the same children again. What happens then?”

He frowns, “I’d be disappointed, but I'd love any child of ours, you must know that.”

“And you wouldn’t be too haunted by Léo and Inés to be that one’s father?”

“What do you mean?”

“Adrien.” She says. Expanding is unnecessary when even if Gabriel refuses to acknowledge how he pushes his son away rather than meeting his mother’s eyes in his face, he’s admitted that trying to get Emilie back cuts into the time he should spend with Adrien. He knows which of the two of them he’s been prioritising even if he hasn’t quite admitted that out loud.

He takes her meaning clearly because he finally lets go of her and his frown straightens out to a mask of practised indifference, “That’s not the same thing.”

She lets the silence do the work for her. He can hurt himself harder than she ever can.

“Everything I do is _for_ Adrien.” He adds, attempting to justify himself.

She stays silent.

“You know that.” He tries.

She does, but “He doesn’t.” She presses. “The two of us, we’re not even good parents to him, and you want to try for more children?”

“We can be better. _I_ can be better. We were better.”

“That Nathalie and Gabriel were, but they were better people than us generally. I don’t think we’re capable of being them.”

“I wasn’t a different person.”

“Yes you were.”

“That Gabriel never lost his wife, he never heard a whisper of any Miraculous, but had what happened to Emilie here happened to you there, I can promise you the results would have been exactly the same. I know who I am.”

“I’m glad one of us does.”

“You weren’t so different either.”

“I feel like I am.” Nathalie Agreste was a comfortable wife and mother who had never even heard of anything to do with the Miraculous, and who probably would have been appalled at the idea of supervillainy. That felt pretty different to her. “And you didn’t answer my question.”

“Which one?”

“What if we marry and we don’t have any children? What happens then? You'll have thrown away your chance of having a life with Emilie again for nothing.”

“Not for nothing. We'd have each other.”

She takes a step closer, taking what he’s offering would be a mistake but it’s such tempting one. Right now she just wants to curl up against him and pretend nothing has changed.

“Would that be enough for you?”

* * *

It’s a last chance grasp. She’s tried Googling Adrien and he doesn’t come up. His father still does though, and surely if anyone else in Paris remembers Adrien it’d be his family.

The voice answering her at the gates to the Agreste Mansion is unknown to Marinette but strangely she doesn’t seem to be unknown to him.

“Marinette? I thought your work experience was over? Do you have something for M.Agreste?”

“I need to talk to him.”

“You know he doesn’t take interruptions well.”

“It’s important. It’s about his son.”

“Well on your head be it.”

The gate swings open, and the unknown man who seems to have replaced the assistant she’d met before let’s her in but they’re left standing in the foyer waiting for Adrien’s father long enough that she starts to think maybe a joke is being played on her.

She looks over at the man about to question him but he just shrugs, “Apparently he and Inés are creating a masterpiece. You know how he is.”

Eventually M.Agreste emerges from the Atelier. The disdain he radiates towards her appearance is thoroughly in line with the image of Adrien’s father Marinette has in her head, but that’s about the only thing that is. She has no explanation for the toddler he’s carrying, nor for the indulgence he gives the child as she babbles at him and them. Nor for that matter for the toddler-sized painted handprints drying on his shirt.

“If this is some play to get your internship extended I’m not impressed.”

“It’s about your son.”

“You said that. I’m still waiting for an explanation.”

“I need to know what happened to Adrien.”

“Who’s Adrien?”

“Your son.”

“You know my son's name is Léo.”

“Your other son. Your son with Emilie. Please tell me you remember him. No one at school does, you’re my last hope. Surely you can remember your own son.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He snaps, but then he softens somewhat, “Should I call a doctor?”

A women appears at the top of stairs. She looks somewhat familiar but it isn’t until she's halfway down the stairs that Marinette is able to see past the sleek dark bob, and stylish but clearly casual outfit and recognise her as the woman who works for Adrien's father. Though the lack of her business suit makes Marinette think she’s not working today.

“Gabriel? I didn’t know we had a guest.”

“We don’t.” He starts, but he's interrupted by the child in his arms making a sudden effort to escape. He lets her down to the ground, saying “Alright, go to your mother then.” and she runs to Nathalie, clinging to the women’s leg.

Suddenly things tumble into place. His Wikipedia page had listed a Nathalie as his wife here but she hadn’t put the two things together. The girl has to be his daughter too, even if that doesn’t make it that much easier to reconcile this version of the man with the one she knows. She can’t imagine this scene with Adrien in her place.

Then he turns back to Marinette. “I was just about to escort Mlle. Dupain-Cheng out of the house.”

A portal blazes open.

Marinette sags in relief when Bunnyx steps out. Finally someone she can trust. Finally someone who might know what’s going on.

The two adults stare at them in shock and Nathalie picks her daughter up in what looks like fright. Adrien’s father takes a step back from them. “I don’t know what you are, but I want you to leave.”

Bunnyx puts her hands up, “I’m not here to attack you.”

“Why are to here then? To fix Marinette? She’s having some sort of mental break.”

“She’s not mad.”

“You could have fooled me.”

“She just remembers another timeline.”

“Oh god. You’re crazy too.”

“I understand it must seem like that to you, but you just saw me appear from nowhere. Magic exists M.Agreste.”

“That could have been a hologram.”

Bunnyx raises her eyebrow, and he tries to justify himself to her scepticism. “It seems more plausible than what you’re telling me. What does any of this magic have to do with me?”

“You’d be surprised. Come on Marinette. Let’s go. He can’t help you get Adrien back here.”

Marinette follows Bunnyx aware that she doesn’t have any other choice.

At the door Bunnyx turns. “I am sorry.”

“For what?” He asks.

“You’ll see.”

* * *

Suddenly Nathalie realises how stupid they’re being. They’ve got a good excuse but they’ve missed the obvious. She cuts him off before he can reply, “It doesn’t matter anyway.”

He glares at her. “How can you say that?”

“We’re talking like these are options we actually have.”

“Don’t we?”

“It’ll all be for nothing when the heroes come for us.”

“What do you mean?”

“If they remember that world too, then they’ll put it together won’t they? There wasn’t any Hawkmoth in that Paris. ”

She can see he’s understood her even if he tries to deny it. “They might not remember. I’m not sure why _we_ remember.”

“We can’t trust to that.”

“There were other changes in that Paris. We weren’t the only ones with different lives.”

“Gabriel, The Rabbit Miraculous wielder appeared in our house. She _apologised_ to us. That other girl came to us asking about Adrien. She mentioned Emilie. Whatever caused that timeline they’ve pegged you as right in the centre of it all.”

He exhales. “We can run. Take Adrien and flee the country. I’ve money hidden abroad.”

“This isn’t how I wanted him to find out.”

“It wasn’t my plan either, but what else can we do?”

“What about Emilie?” She asks.

“You know we’ve contingencies for her care for exactly this situation.”

She looks towards her computer. “I should go make arrangements, you should go pack.”

She doesn’t quite manage to keep her voice level. He reaches for her hand and squeezes it in reassurance. “We’ll find a way to make this work.”

They can’t have much time but she turns back to him. He’s very close now and it’s easy to let her head fall against his chest, and let him embrace her.

* * *

Marinette hadn’t finished desperately upending her room looking for her earrings, when her mother came in and hurried her off to school.

Of course her mother couldn’t realise that the safety of all of Paris was at stake. That she’d failed everyone.

She considers bunking off school but until Hawkmoth makes an appearance she doesn’t even know what she can do. She has no Miraculous and no way of trying to contact Chat Noir either.

She has to hold in tears the whole way through registration. Everyone keeps smiling at her because none of them know she’s failed them all.

It’s odd though. If Hawkmoth had both their Miraculouses then she’d expect to see the signs of it but her missing earrings are the only symptom of what’s happened.

That and apparently that no one knows about Hawkmoth anymore. When she’d Googled to look for any news on him all that came up was pictures and articles about actual moths. Which isn’t a ridiculous thing for him to have done but if he didn’t want Paris to know about him he just didn’t need to become Hawkmoth in the first place. He didn’t need their Miraculouses for that.

The only other odd thing is that Adrien isn’t here. It’s unlike him to miss school. Perhaps he’s ill but she doesn’t like it. She hopes his father hasn’t decided to pull him out of school again. Though if Hawkmoth has got Chat Noir’s Miraculous as well as her own then maybe he’s right to.

She turns back to Nino. “Where’s Adrien?”

“Who’s Adrien?” he asks.

She opens her mouth then shuts it. Maybe he’s joking with her. Or maybe _this_ is the missing other changes in the world. It would explain her different bedroom at least, but it just doesn’t make any sense. With absolute power at his hands surely making one teenage model disappear wouldn’t be the only obvious change Hawkmoth would make. Adrien’s an incredible person, and he’s important to _her,_ but it’s not like he’s any threat to Hawkmoth.

She looks round the classroom trying to work out if anything _else_ looks different. Chloé’s missing too, and Lila’s sitting in her place next to Sabrina.

She looks back at Nino. It’s worth chancing it. “Sorry. I meant Chloé.”

Nino looks at her weirdly. “I don’t know how you could get those names mixed up but she’s in New York with her mom. You know that.”

“Right.”

* * *

She notices the Atelier door opening too late to move into a less compromising position, especially as when she does try to pull away Gabriel loosens his embrace enough that she can take a step back but his hands slides down her body so he’s still holding on to her as if he thinks she'll run away if he lets go.

“Father have you seen, uh.” Adrien breaks off blushing as he takes them in, “I’m sorry, I can go.”

Her brain is too caught in the shock of seeing Adrien to process their situation for a moment. She is _glad_ to see Adrien, and it isn’t until now that she realises she's been worried that she wouldn’t be. That she'd be resentful that he was here and her children weren’t, that she’d find in their awkward relationship a pale imitation of her life with her children and not be able to prevent herself from getting cross at him for it.

Yet she's a better woman than she thought she was because she finds herself happy that at least he exists. It was different for that other Nathalie. She never knew Adrien.

When her embarrassment catches up with her she reassures herself that it could have been a lot worse. They’re not actually _doing_ anything. It’s unlikely Adrien's going to be scarred for life by catching them standing in an embrace, but it's not as if they can really explain away Gabriel's proprietary hold on her waist and hand supporting her back, platonically.

Gabriel finally lets go of her so he can turn to face his son but his other hand remains on the small of her back.

“It’s fine. What did you want Adrien?”

“Um, I was wondering where Nathalie was, but I can see the two of you are busy.”

“Actually” she says trying to regain some of her dignity and sense. “We need you to go pack.”

“Pack?”

“We’re going on a trip.” Gabriel says.

“When?”

“Now.”

“But I’ve school today.”

“And I’m saying you don’t.”

Adrien looks rebellious and for a moment she expects him fight back but they must look serious enough that he doesn’t fight it, even if he does slam the Atelier door sulkily.

“We’re ruined his life haven’t we?”

* * *

The constant beeping of her alarm clock just about manages to wake Marinette up enough to hit snooze on it. Unfortunately she knows herself and sometime in the past she’d set it to start up again almost immediately.

Then her mother beats on the trapdoor below and she finally admits defeat and almost literally rolls out of bed. It’s not one of her worst mornings in terms of time.

Her mind lags behind her body in coming online and it’s not until she’s been down and grabbed something to eat and is trying to put her bag together with the homework due today, that she truly notices the lack of photos of Adrien on her wall.

There’s a promotional poster of Kitty Section, pictures of her friends and plenty of her own designs, and photos from fashion magazines which inspire her. There’s even other _Gabriel_ promotional shoots but none of the teenage male models are Adrien.

Her sluggish brain struggles to make sense of it. She didn’t remember that he was supposed to be coming over but that would explain it. That has to be it. Nothing else would make sense.

There _does_ seem to be more photos of Luka than she remembers. More than she remembers taking even, but that’s stupid-photos don’t just appear from nowhere.

She goes to check her hair in the mirror.

She’s not wearing her earrings.

Something is very wrong.

* * *

Nathalie thinks her heart's going to stop when Adrien returns with Ladybug and the Rabbit Miraculous Wielder. It’s too late. They should have ran earlier and not got so caught up in their feelings. Neither of them ever wanted Adrien to see any of this.

She lets her arm brush Gabriel’s in reassurance. If they’re going down then they’re going down together.

“I know you said that we had to leave quickly, but Ladybug just arrived looking for you. Surely you’ve time to speak to her.” Adrien begs.

Nathalie stares at the girl wishing she’ll understand her silent plea to leave Adrien out of this. He doesn’t need to see his father’s defeat. His presence and the hero worship in his eyes as he stares at Ladybug is the only thing stopping her transforming now.

That and the fact that neither Ladybug nor her companion look that confrontational. Chat Noir’s absence seems odd too if this is supposed to be an arrest but maybe he’s waiting outside to block their escape.

“I don’t suppose I can say no.” Gabriel belatedly answers his son.

“Right. Um, Ladybug?” Adrien asks sheepishly, “Do you need me here? Only I sort of need to get ready for school?”

Ladybug looks over at the older hero clearly deferring to her.

“He might as well stay.” She says ruining Nathalie’s hopes that at least Adrien won’t have to see what happens.

The apologetic shrug Ladybug gives Adrien doesn’t reassure her at all.

“So why are you here?” Gabriel asks, as impatient as ever. Though she can’t fault him right now. Putting their unmasking off a few seconds doesn’t seem worth the agonised anticipation.

“I’m sorry to burst in but we need your help.” Ladybug says. The girl bites her lip nervously, “Do you remember that other timeline?”

Confusion seeps through the terror. This doesn’t seem like the precursor to arresting them. It doesn’t seem possible they could be identified as the main change in the timeline but not identified as Hawkmoth and Mayura, but perhaps somehow they have been. There were _other_ changes in that world, which she’d ignored as butterfly effects, but maybe hope is possible and they’re just interviewing everyone whose life changed.

“I do.” Gabriel admits. “I was under the impression your friend here had erased it from existence.”

“Not exactly.” Says Ladybug. “That timeline, it shouldn’t have ever existed. It didn’t form naturally. It was created, and if we don’t do anything someone’s going to create it in the next day or so.”

Maybe Nathalie is a terrible person after all because she feels a terrible sick hope at the idea that maybe they could just return to that. That it could be possible to return to that. That maybe someone else will do it for her, and she won’t remember anyone of this.

She wishes she could know what Gabriel’s thinking, but he manages to keep up their cover frowning at Ladybug. “I don’t understand. What can we do for you? You’re the superheroes.”

The older heroine is the one to answer. “You’re the only person who can stop the circumstances that created that world M.Agreste.”

“What? Why I would I want do that?” He asks.

Ladybug glances over at Adrien.

Gabriel’s answering flinch shows he’s taken her meaning. Thankfully Adrien just looks confused.

“Do you understand what you’re asking me to do? You’re asking me to pick between my children.”

She can feel the tension running through him. If the girl keeps pushing him he might transform to fight her now, identity be damned.

Adrien looks at them lost. She can’t meet his eyes. Not when she doesn’t know what she’d ask his father to do if she spoke. Not when she doesn’t know what she might have done to him.

“There’s more than that though.” Ladybug says, “I know that seemed like a happy world, I mean no Hawkmoth seems like a good thing right? But Bunnyx has told me about the future of that timeline, and it doesn’t end well. Not for you. Not for your children. Not for anyone. You have to do the right thing.”

“Father?” Adrien asks. “I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I.” She cuts in. She’s not ready to explain to Adrien yet. Not until she clarifies something, “Are you saying that _we_ created that world?”

She’s afraid they did. No that’s not right. She’s afraid _she_ did. If they win then with the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses they’d have the power could change the world like that, and while Gabriel was happy in that world he’d never have thought to have created it. She though, if she’d been the one to wield them, maybe her deepest darkest desires would have created that world at the cost of Adrien’s existence. She might not have even admitted to herself that was what she was doing-after all it _was_ a world where Emilie was alive, and Gabriel’s family was complete. It’s just it was a completely different family.

“Not directly.” Bunnyx states. “But you two created the circumstances that caused the person that did to do it. You’re smart. I’m sure you can figure that out.”

“Can’t we tell them anything more?” Ladybug asks.

“I think she knows _how_ it was done, if not by _who_. It’s up to them to do the right thing.” Bunnyx answers.

* * *

Adrien isn’t thinking when he takes the earrings from Marinette’s body. He has to fix things, and fixing things means they need _a_ Ladybug and he’s the only person there that’s wielded the Ladybug Miraculous at all.

He’ll fix things.

They’ll defeat Hawkmoth. He’ll cast Miraculous Ladybug. Marinette will be alive again.

Once she’s alive, then he can deal with her being Ladybug and what that means for him, and for her, and for them, but right now all he’s got the time to focus on is saving her.

He ignores her Kwami begging him not to do it, to find someone else. There’s no time for that.

When he says the transformation phrase and the pain almost rips him apart he realises he might have made a mistake.

This is nothing like using the Snake and Cat together.

There’s no time to deal with the how it feels though, he has to save her, he has to save everyone, he has to save Paris.

When Carapace almost gets hit by the villain too, he sees red.

In that moment he wants nothing more than for the world to reform to one without Hawkmoth, where everyone he loves is happy. He feels this through every cell in his body. He wants it more than he’s ever wanted anything.

This is may be a mistake when you’re wielding the power to actually change reality.

Was it a mistake?

Adrien can’t tell you, because there’s always a price to be paid for this wish.

* * *

Once the heroes take their leave of them Adrien hovers behind. “What were they talking about in there? What happened in this other timeline?”

Gabriel sighs. “Go to school Adrien. We’ll talk later.”

If Adrien finds this sudden about turn from his earlier demand that he not go nonsensical he doesn’t say so. It must be obvious enough that this conversation has changed things.

Gabriel looks over at the portrait of Emilie. “I can’t do this in here.”

“Come on,” She guides him into the sitting room, and collapses onto the sofa. He follows her example but neither of them speak until they hear the front door shut announcing Adrien’s exit.

“What are we meant to do?” He says.

“I don’t know.”

“Even if I was sure I wanted to stop this, we don’t know how. That whole conversation was clear as mud.”

She doesn’t know if she wants to say it, but she can’t completely keep the disagreement off her face.

“Nathalie?”

“I think the Rabbit Miraculous Holder knows who we are.”

Gabriel sits up, “But, she didn’t say anything. She didn’t tell Ladybug. She let us go.”

“I can’t figure that either, but then we don’t know her goals. That little set-piece in there? That was all her, not Ladybug.”

He nods and she continues.

“Whoever used the Miraculouses to create that world. I think they did it in response to something Hawkmoth and Mayura did, or, were going to do.”

“Maybe one of my akumas worked. Maybe tomorrow I’ll akumatise someone who will defeat the heroes, but they’ll make their own wish with it.”

“Maybe.” She agreed but something in his line of thinking didn’t seem quite right.

“I know.” He sighs. “It doesn’t explain anything about that world really.”

“There was no Hawkmoth there.”

“Yes, I know.”

“That’s the difference between our worlds.”

He looks at her hand and she knows he’s looking at her bare ring finger. “There were rather more differences than that.”

“For _us._ For the rest of Paris? There was no Hawkmoth there because you never married Emilie, and the Peacock Miraculous never killed her. All the other changes stemmed from that.”

“You think someone wished Hawkmoth away? But why make Adrien the price? Why give me a happy life and not just wipe _me_ out of existence.”

“I don’t know.” She admits. “I’d thought maybe he was just the simplest cost, because removing the reason for you becoming Hawkmoth, removed the circumstances for Adrien’s birth too, but I don’t know. When I say it, it seems too simple.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Maybe he was just collateral damage to the actual wish.” Gabriel offered. “Why did that girl Marinette remember him anyway?”

“Do you think it was _her_ wish?” Nathalie ventures, “Is all you need to do not akumatise her?”

“I’ve never been able to akumatise her before so that should be easy enough to do. If stopping that timeline is what I want to do.”

“Gabriel.” She sighs, “Don’t ask me to tell you what to do. I can’t make this decision.”

“Don’t you want it?”

Of course she wants it but, “At that cost? If it was anyone else.”

There’s no need to expand further. He knows what she means. If it was anyone other than Adrien at stake neither of them would hesitate. But Adrien is Gabriel’s _son,_ he’s a child Nathalie’s helped raise and loves in her own way too, he’s the son of a women Nathalie’s already betraying by being halfway to stealing her husband, she can’t wipe Emilie’s son out of existence on top of that.

He presses his fingers to his forehead, clearly as emotionally conflicted as she is. “Do you think they were telling the truth? About the future of that world.”

“Who knows. If I was them I’d tell us whatever would make us do what they wanted.”

“Hmm.” He accepts. “Maybe if we defeat the heroes, we could create our own world, one with all three children. One where we’re all happy.” 

“How? If you have Emilie you’ll never notice me.” In truth even in that world where she had him Nathalie had thought sometimes his attraction to her was just a matter of convenience. That Gabriel might have fallen for anyone who was around him all day.

“I don’t know that that’s true.”

“Even if you did, I know you. You wouldn’t break the vows you’d made her for me.”

He nods defeated. “I suppose I just want there to be a way.” Then he turns so his whole body is facing her. “Maybe I was on the right track earlier, back when I didn’t think there was any chance to return to that world.”

“What?” 

“That world was different because someone didn’t want Hawkmoth, but we weren’t different people. If the Wish was going to do that then it would just make me into someone who wouldn’t become Hawkmoth instead of taking away my reason to.”

“What’s your point?”

“That we _can_ rebuild that life here. If Ladybug and Chat Noir don’t know who we are then there’s nothing stopping us.”

“Except everything I already said earlier. You don’t know if it will work.”

“Do you see another option?”

“No, but”

“Then Nathalie, please. Just let us try. I want our children, but I want _us_ too, I want _you._ I can’t just act like none of it happened.”

It’s an echo of her own thoughts, but with the vital twist that he wants her even without their children. “I know. I can’t either. I was going to resign.”

“I like my idea better.”

“So do I, but I didn’t know you’d remember too. I didn’t know you’d want this.”

“How could I not?”

“There’s Emilie.”

“I can’t ignore this on the chance we’ll get her back.”

That he’s admitting they might not succeed is as shocking as anything else this day, and it fills her with enough confidence to make a demand. “You know I’ve always wanted to help you achieve your goal.”

“I do.”

“We should keep trying to save her, I’m happy to keep trying, but if I get pregnant we can’t be Hawkmoth and Mayura. I can’t be a part-time parent and part-time supervillain. I can’t worry that my child is going to lose his father.”

“That’s” He swallows, “That’s fair.”

She’s still not sure she can believe what she’s hearing. “You’re agreeing.”

“I am.”

“Oh.” She wasn’t really ready for that. “Right. What do we do now then? Just don’t akumatise anyone for the next few days?”

“If we’re right about what caused it-and I don’t see how else we could have, then that seems the easiest course of action. Though I must admit I was rather hoping for a more enthusiastic response.”

She _knows_ the look he’s giving her now. It had got her into enough trouble in that other world. Then again it had also gotten her her children in that other world.

No doubt he knows the amused acceptance on her face too, but for once he doesn’t push any further, waiting as she takes her glasses off and places them to one side, letting her lean over and does the same to his.

When she’s finally ready to kiss him it feels exactly the same as she remembers. She can almost pretend nothing's changed.


End file.
